Open source brain training software

the problem is that making such software is not exactly trivial. You need to have a neuroscientist working with you, not just mad coder skillz. Also some of the training methods might be subjected to nasty patent laws. But hey, I’ll chip in $25 if someone thinks he can really do it!

Can’t make a quote without more detailed specifications.

Are you saying it should be an exact clone of Lumosity, except in the form of a desktop app?

Even if so, desktop apps are different than web apps. I would need more info.

As is, it sounds like you’re asking someone not only to write the app, but to design it as well. However, knowing how long it will take to write the app isn’t possible without a design.

So, even if you’re looking for an exact clone of Lumosity, writing up what exactly that means to you into a specifications document would be very helpful.

funny thing.. i’ve got a neuroscientist working with me. my wife. we’ve talked about this software for ages now, So i’ll happily write it and for free, but the problem with this task is the requirements. it’s not like I can just pull it out of my butt. open source would mean we’d have to establish a standard question format like (in XML for example) and define the mechanisms for adding questions and trials. once you do that, the programing is trivial.

Something that would generate novelty, I’m thinking visual novelty, would be great, too. The brain eats that sort of thing up, it generates new brain cells even.

I’ve thought of travel through randomly-generated landscapes - (seeing new places is supposed to be one of the things that works). I’m thinking a road, through mountains, with trees, different kinds of houses, terrain, bridges, rivers. Of course, whether it would be new-in-kind enough, or immersive enough, I don’t know. I know that I always think new thoughts when I go new places, whether by car or plane, however. Peter Gabriel has said he gets good ideas on trains. And a saying at Los Alamos was, that you get your ideas through the 3 ‘B’s; Bed, Bath, and Bus.

Robblerobble, you have a solid gold point, That would be a fantastic brain training program, especially if it had fantastic graphics (like 3dmark). I would happily put some work into something like a scenery generator.

Especially as imagery helps your memory and your focus. How about using flickr images as pegs? Learning languages with peg words has proved to be very efficient and learning a new language is a proven way of extending the capabilities of your brain!

Definitely a nice project to work on!

As I see it, there will be several interesting sub-projects - so I guess we all can have a share in this.

Pierre: I agree with the modular part, but not with the programming part.

For some people, programming is hard to impossible to learn, as some studies have shown. They are intelligent alright - they just can’t “dumb down” their ideas for a machine.

If you want to make a product that not only helps programmers and geeks but also other people, the basic modules have to address real basic brain skills - cognitive control, impulse control, attention, focus (those two are NOT the same!), visual thinking, spatial thinking, numeracy,…

I have created an open source brain trainer. You can find it here. It’s based on a peer reviewed paper published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.” There is a commercial program by Posit Science which is also based on this research. The commercial program costs $300.

But it doesn’t meet a lot of the requirements y’all have laid out: It’s Windows XP and better only (uses Microsoft-Text-to-Speech, DirectX and .NET.) It’s not super modular. Each exercise plugs into a framework but it’s pretty tightly designed to run the exercises listed in the paper.

But again, it’s based on a peer reviewed experiment, so we know that it’s not unproven or questionable science like Brain Age or Big Brain Academy.

Thanks DoomGoober for the link, it’s definitely something to look into if one wants to program an OO alternative - you’re right, there are many products that claim to be “scientific”, but only if you have a peer-reviewed paper on your hands you really do know that you have something.

However, there are some feats which are at least proven empirically:

1. Improving short-term memory by recall exercise (something magicians use a lot for certain purposes)

2. Improving numeracy by awarding speed in quick mental calculation

3. Improving cognitive control by “punishing” premature responses

4. Improving memory by practicing certain mnemonic techniques

5. Improving visual attention by forcing you to focus on more than one object at a time

Let us keep this going, the more ideas we have the better the final product will be :)

Erm, please don’t take offense, your trainer is OO as well - what I meant of course was a platform-independent OO alternative :)

That’s true. Did you have a look at lumosity? They’re pretty good at that. I love the birdwatching exercise for that.

Programming however is not ideal for training the mind’s introspective feature, as programming requires some logical capabilities not everyone possesses.

Congratulations for winning the project, btw.